CAYO COSTA CEMETERY, Caya Costa Island, Lee County, Florida
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Southwest Florida
Pioneers Historical Society, (caloosa@tampabay.rr.com).
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Notes: Cayo Costa Cemetery began as a final resting place for members
of the Padilla family. The island is remote and the only other
option would have been to transport the deceased to the mainland.
The burial markers that exist today are not representative of who is
buried at Cayo Costa Cemetery. The wooden markers used in earlier
times have rotted and washed away.
There are tales that the cemetery was not always a burial
ground. In the late 1880’s bodies of Cuban sailors washed ashore at
Dead Man’s Cove and the people of Cayo Costa buried them at the same
place they had buried their own. It is believed that Torivio “Pappy”
Padilla was buried in the old cemetery and Captain Peter Nelson was
the first to be buried at the new location.
Lore has it that in the 1950’s and ‘60’s folks dug up the
graves in the old cemetery looking for treasure and moved any
markers that were still standing. The Island has since been
purchased by the State of Florida and it is now a state park. The
Parks Department has charge of the cemetery.
COLEMAN, Eugene Dykes, b. Jan 6 1902 d. May 4 1925, "Gone, But Not Forgotten"
COLEMAN, Walter Ashley, b. Sep 7 1884 d. Aug 1943, "A Good Father"
DARNA, Jake, No Date, "Infant"
JOHNSON, Fanny Coleman, b. May 12 1860 d. Oct 13 1927
NELSON, Capt. Peter, b. No Date d. Sep 7 1919, "Age 80 Years", "Founder of Alva,FL", "Native of Denmark", "Charlotte Harbor ship pilot"
PADILLA, John Lorence, b. Dec 10 1882 d. Mar 10 1938, s/o Torovia Jose and Juanita Perez Padilla, unmarked
PADILLA, Tarovia, b. No Date d. 1910